Your Scalp is Like a Garden

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Ashley Koff: Hi. I’m dietician Ashley Koff here with Simply Natural Living, and today with Linda Kammins from Linda Kammins Salon and Products. And Linda when I first met you I, you know I had had a little bit of starting the thinning in my hair, and it was bothering me, and somebody wanted to spray artificial color on it, and I was like, that’s not happening, and somebody recommended you. And I came in, and I left, and I said, you know what, she’s my hair nutritionist.

Linda Kammins: That’s right.

Ashley Koff: So I, you know I don’t know if there’s anyone else like that. I don’t know if there is such a thing, but you talk about nutrition. What does nutrition have to do with our hair?

Linda Kammins: It has to do with the natural receptive way that we accept nutrition into the body. You know when it comes to the hair we’re so loaded with toxic products; I had no idea until the early 90’s, and I had already been a hair dresser for many years prior to that. But when I found all of these toxic materials that are byproducts of the product and all of the materials that are in it. That was very very surprising and..

Ashley Koff: So like, in our shampoos, conditioners?

Linda Kammins: Yes.

Ashley Koff: What about like the hair gels? All of it? Like they’re toxic?

Linda Kammins: All of it. All of it. You know there hasn’t been a lot put into the idea that hair’s living. When I was in beauty school hair was dead. I believe that even medical science still claims that hair is dead, but I don’t think of hair as dead; I think of hair as a plant, as a living thing, and just because it doesn’t make a sound when we cut it doesn’t mean it’s dead.

Ashley Koff: Right.

Linda Kammins: It’s very much alive and it responds to nutrition inside and out.

Ashley Koff: And you know, one of the things you talked to me about was taking care of your hair had to do with everything from the scalp to, you know your brush, your hair dryer, your—and obviously your products. So take me through what people should be doing to improve the quality of their health, and obviously you have products and brushes, but what can somebody be doing if they’re at home.

Linda Kammins: Yeah. Well they could order my products online.

Ashley Koff: There you go. So we’re easy on that part. Yes. Yeah.

Linda Kammins: But the philosophy behind what I have to say is really pretty important cause this is where I’ve seen results and this is where I’ve seen people have trouble. And where people have trouble is when they’re spraying their hair, and they’re trying to hold a hairdo in for a little while. They’re not giving it any kind of a massage or any kind of brushing, and most people are concerned about having dirty hair, they want to wash it really often. They work out and then they want to wash it. But what they’re doing is that they’re stripping away a lot of the natural microbials that are on the scalp that our hair actually needs. And if we allow our hair to get dirty, and then take a brush, a good brush, like my favorite brush is the Widu brush, and it’s a handmade all wooden bristle brush. It makes a difference, you know, and it has just the right amount of give. And you start brushing the oils through your hair; you’re going to really polish it. But an important step before that is to have the hair trimmed. If the ends are very weak, and you’re brushing through your hair, you’re going to start pulling out a lot of hair. But that’s what most people are afraid of; If I brush my hair will I be pulling hair out? You know, and it’s, yes if your hair is very tangled, and you’re hair is a real mess, then this can happen. So it serves to get the hair in condition so that you can start brushing it, and you can start seeing results.

Ashley Koff: And what about, you know from a vanity point, I didn’t want thinning hair, so I want to be able to thicken it, but I also, you know I do like to go get a blowout, or I do like to you know maybe get highlights in the winter and that stuff. Is that so bad for us we should never do it? Or is it, if we’re doing that there are things that we can do too as a balancing factor?

Linda Kammins: Well when it comes to my clients if they’re not ready for that, they’re not going to have that, you know, because I’m not going to split their cuticle with bleach on their hair unless their hair is in really good shape.

Ashley Koff: You mean, by that you mean color? If it’s not,

Linda Kammins: When someone’s asking for highlights, that can be pretty dangerous if their hair is very messed up. But if their hair’s been treated for awhile, like sometimes I’ve made people wait up to a year. But then when the highlights are done, and I do it with enzymes I don’t do it with peroxide. There’s a huge difference in the results of how they—how it looks, so it’s reflecting light like virgin hair. And that’s how colored hair should look, like virgin hair.

Ashley Koff: I love it. I always felt like my— I left and I feel like my hair looks so natural, and as you said it is, it’s the enzymes reaction in that way. So helpful and healthful to understand that, you know we really, to get our hair back to where we want it is really a whole treatment process as you’re talking about.

Linda Kammins: It is.

Ashley Koff: You know, key take away—the right brush, you were talking about a wooden brush; making sure that we are brushing it almost as preparation as you said in that way. Letting your hair be a little bit dirty and then brushing it in. Cutting it regularly.

Linda Kammins: Yes.

Ashley Koff: And then also making sure, before you do any of the other treatments or enhancements that your hair is in a healthy place to not be further damaged from that. Absolutely love it. I could talk to you for hours. Thank you so much for joining us.